Living Proof
by heyagrons
Summary: Pepper Potts is the living proof that Tony Stark has a heart. [IM3 SPOILERS, like major spoilers]


Hello.

This is technically my first story in this account, although I did have other accounts with other stories that I find was so bad so I decided to move.

Anyway, I just saw iron man 3 yesterday and it was breathtaking and I couldn't stop shaking in my seat and I think I grabbed my friend's hand so hard and I ended up in this weird position, but anyway, as the movie went on I could notice how much pepper and tony love each other (like anyone didn't find them adorable) and I find that really really beautiful. I mean in the beginning it didn't show but after all that shit and that wow ending it was just one of the most beautiful and genuine things I have ever seen (*applauds Robert and Gwyneth*) so this is basically not even a story, just things that I think went through the twosome's head throughout the movie.

_Shit, that was a long author's note. _

Anyway, the usual thing, blah blah blah , these characters belong to marvel, and all that shit. I will be forever clinging to the possibility of a fourth movie until the day I die. ( ALL THE MISTAKES ARE MINE and i have no beta so that's sad but anyway enjoy!)

When she first felt cold metal wrapping the skin of her limbs after the explosion her brain went numb. The first thing she registered was that her boyfriend's suit was on her, and then the thought suddenly hit her. He was unprotected. He was lying somewhere, waiting for pieces of his new prototype to fly and stick to his body but it had stuck to hers instead which means that he's unprotected. She turned around, trying to find him under all that smoke and dust and broken concrete, and that's when she saw him. Lying there. Vulnerable. unprotected. Her eyes registered the falling floor above her and at that time all she could think about was _Save Tony. _He has saved her so many times before, and she thinks that it's time she returns the favor. He loves her after all, and frankly she loves him too.

When he told her to grab Maya and run she's torn. She wants to stay with him, because if he didn't survive, than she has no reason to, but she sees the look in his eyes and she just had to do it. She ran, and tried to take control of the suit, feeling the urge to laugh at her because tony made flying in that piece of metal look so easy, and she can barely walk in that thing. When she finally felt a pull, and the pieces of metal finally left her skin she allowed herself to relax a bit, not fully though, tony was still inside.

When the bombs stopped and the place she called home stop crumbling, she didn't dare breathe. She ran inside, ran through all that smoke and debris and broken furniture and the broken traces of her life trying to search for the one thing she could never live without. Her heart shattered when she couldn't find him. As tears rolled down her face her biggest regret was that their last real conversation was an argument, and that just broke her even more, if it was even possible.

She held on to his mask like it was her lifeline, as if it would bring him back to her, safe in her arms. It did though; it did bring him back to her. It wasn't physically but when his voice played in her ears as she put the mask on it felt like the weight of the world had just been lifted off her shoulders. _He was alive. _ That became her mantra. She was beyond pissed at him, but no matter how mad she was that he couldn't come back soon, she was still ecstatic that he was alive. He hadn't left her yet, god they still had so much ahead of them, she would be damned if he left before they got to do all those things, the part where he proposes, where they get married and have little iron babies that he had brought up nights ago.

His hands were tied, and he's pretty sure he has never felt this helpless. He's tied in god knows where with his long lost ex, if he could even call a girl he had a one night stand with an ex, in this stupid dungeon with tiny stupid windows. It stabs at his heart when Aldrich Killian rolls these marble-like object and this hologram "live feed" of the love of his life being tortured and strapped into a metal plate, and he finds that he wants to blow this idiot's face up. He tries to not let tears slip through his eyes as he watch pepper's face scrunch in discomfort and then she screamed, and he had to look away because watching her suffer made him suffer, and it stabbed at his heart just a little bit more. Killian was right, Tony Stark, the billionaire tony stark was beyond desperate. He was desperate to get out of this twisted situation and all he wanted more than anything else was to hold Pepper again and never let her near any harm.

After making a fool of himself for 5 minutes trying to summon parts of his suit, he finally set himself free. He somehow managed to find Rhodes, and it crushed him when he told him to choose between Pepper, or the President. When his best friend and him were both on that deck, watching as all his suits, all he has worked for in his life, line up above them, attacking the people affected by the extremis and well backing him up.

When Jarvis told him that he had finally located pepper, Tony ran. He ran so fast and he let his limbs take him to her. He wasn't prepared to see what he saw. Pepper Potts, his pepper, looked like she was in so much pain and there was so much sweat covering her beautiful body, and his heart hurt of her.

When Pepper fell into the fire, Tony's inside died a little. He regrets not telling her that he loves her enough, he regrets that the real last conversation they had was a stupid argument over the Christmas bunny and getting to a safe house. But mostly, he regrets the fact that he's iron man, but he couldn't even safe his own girlfriend. How was he supposed to save the world ? He promised her he would catch her but he didn't. When he locked eyes with Killian this energy burst from inside of him, and he wanted to kill her, to avenge pepper's death.

"_You're right, I don't deserve her, but here's where you're wrong. She's already perfect." _

When he fell to the ground he didn't care anymore. If Killian was going to kill him then fine, at least he would get to be with Pepper in the afterlife, if that even existed. He was surprised when the flaming villain was smacked away from him by no other than Pepper. He had never been more terrified and relieved his entire life. She looks possessed, and it scared him. But on top of everything he was glad that she was alive. He scared the crap out of him, but that was all in the past now.

As he looked up at the sky he couldn't help but smile. He just destroyed everything he's been working on for the last few years but he felt content. He was holding the love of his life in his arms, and if by blowing up that suit it meant having her closer to him and keeping her safe, than there was nothing to regret. He had grown to care for this woman more than he ever wished for. She'd always been there for him, and now it's time that he returns the favor.

He gave Pepper his heart, right there, on the balcony of a hotel they were staying at during New Year's Eve. He gave her a necklace, made of pieces of shrapnel from his arc reactor. He remembers when she gave him that gift of a framed arc reactor. It seemed fitting, because he was so in love with Pepper that it would only feel right if she wore his heart around her neck, showing everyone in the world that she was his, and he was hers, and nothing is ever going to tear them apart. Pepper Potts is the living proof that Tony Stark has a heart.

AN: what is this even ? I hope it didn't suck I just need to let my feels out. If you click the review button down there I might give you a hug, and I might give you more pepperony feels. I know no one in this fandom but well, I hope you enjoy this.


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